written by the experts at Hello Joyous
When you think of skincare your first thought is likely how to manage breakouts, tips for glowing skin, how to soothe dry, itchy skin or how to properly care for perimenopausal skin. I bet you rarely, if ever, consider caring for your scalp to be part of your skincare routine.
Today we’re turning our attention to this often overlooked, but important part of your beauty routine–supporting a healthy scalp. This post outlines the best supplements, foods, and beauty products to hydrate, moisturize, and soothe your scalp. Keeping this sensitive skin healthy and happy promotes strong, gorgeous hair so you can truly glow from head-to-toe!
Best Foods to Soothe Your Scalp
- Cold-water fatty fish like salmon, mackerel, and sardines: These fish are rich in omega-3 fats, which are important for skin health (more below!) and protein, both important for building strong skin and hair!
- Pumpkin seeds: These seeds are rich in vitamin E and zinc, both of which help support hair growth and skin health.
- Winter squash: Did you know that orange foods are rich in a nutrient called beta-carotene, a precursor to vitamin A? This vitamin helps to produce sebum and moisturize the scalp, thus keeping hair shiny and healthy.
- Avocados: The healthy fats in avocados support skin health, while vitamin E functions as an antioxidant to protect the scalp from damage.
- Bell peppers: They are rich in vitamin C, an antioxidant that promotes collagen production. This protein is the most abundant in the body and plays an important role in healthy skin, hair, and nails.
Best Scalp-Loving Supplements
We believe supplements are just that, an addition to an otherwise healthy diet and lifestyle that can help support overall well-being, including skin health! That said, there are a few key nutrients that we recommend for those who might be experiencing a dry, itchy, or flaky scalp:
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B Vitamins: These nutrients play a key role in the creation of red blood cells, which carry oxygen and nutrients to the scalp and hair follicles.
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Omega-3 fats/fish oil: These fatty acids not only help decrease overall inflammation in the body, but they are also key for building healthy skin by improving its elasticity, hydration, and strength.
- Vitamin D: Also known as the sunshine vitamin, it helps support skin barrier health and function to prevent dryness and flakiness. It also plays an important role in creating new hair follicles, so it nourishes your scalp while supporting healthy hair growth!
Best Products for Hair & Scalp Health
When it comes to supporting the health of your scalp and your hair, what you leave out of your beauty routine is just as important as what you include.
There are many ingredients in hair care products that could be both potentially harmful to your overall health and can be incredibly irritating to the scalp.
Some ingredients to watch out for and avoid include:
- Synthetic fragrances can cause an allergic response in the scalp. When the skin is inflamed or damaged, this can slow hair regrowth.
- SLS and SLES are chemicals that produce foam. They are harsh detergents that can irritate the scalp by stripping away natural oils and increasing the risk of hair loss.
- Propylene glycol is a skin irritant. It is used to help the consistency and it increases the absorption of other chemicals in shampoo.
- Phthalates are found in fragrance and are well-established hormone-disrupting chemicals.
But here’s the thing—you can make products that are both efficacious AND only full of clean, organic beneficial ingredients. With this in mind, we created two products specifically designed to nourish and soothe your scalp for your best hair days!
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Dry Shampoo:
We formulated the Hello Joyous Dry Shampoo with an organic blend of starches to soak up excess oil and provide volume and texture so you can go longer between washes. But we didn’t stop there! It’s infused with organic rosemary oil, which naturally supports healthy hair since it encourages hair growth, soothes itchy scalps, stimulates circulation to nourish hair follicles, and can help manage dandruff. We also included organic chickweed extract that has anti-fungal properties that can help prevent dandruff and relieve itchy scalp as well.
The Hello Joyous Dry Shampoo comes in Light and Dark shades, so you can match it to your colour with no dusty roots in sight. In fact, our product is so loved by our community that it recently won the Best Dry Shampoo award from the Think Dirty App!
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Happy Hair Drops:
For the past year, we've been working on Happy Hair Drops, a nutrient-rich hair serum powered by certified organic, cold-pressed oils to hydrate, soothe and strengthen from root to tip. We believe in a root-to-tip philosophy: When you nourish the scalp and hair follicles with the right ingredients, you’re not just creating the illusion of healthy hair—you’re supporting stronger, shinier, more resilient strands from the inside out.
This new hair essential is formulated with deeply nourishing, scalp-loving botanicals designed to feed the scalp with organic botanicals; support healthy hair growth and strength; and lock in moisture for soft, shiny strands.
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Bonus: Ultra-Moisturizing Body Butter:
While this article focuses on nourishing and protecting your scalp for healthy, happy hair, we must include the Hello Joyous Ultra-Moisturizing Body Butter. Whether you’re winterizing your skin, working to support the skin barrier and skin microbiome to heal eczema or sensitized skin, or just want to treat yourself to high-quality skin nourishment, our BB is a must-have! Not only is it the perfect blend of organic butters, oils, and plant extracts to soothe your skin, but you can also use it to tame frizzies or soothe split ends when you’re on the go!
We hope this article inspires you to take some small, simple steps to nourish and protect your scalp for healthy, happy hair!
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Hello Joyous is on a mission to help you find more joy in the everyday with organic, plant-based, sustainable beauty and functional wellness teas that support your well-being, make you feel good and are kind to the planet.
When founder Joy McCarthy was in her 20’s she had a complete health transformation that took her from hormonal imbalance to hormonal harmony. A big part of her healing journey was eliminating conventional hormone disrupting beauty products she was using daily. This transformation inspired Joy to follow her passion to become a holistic nutritionist where she started Joyous Health—a blog where she writes about natural beauty, creates delicious recipes and shares tips on living more joyously. In the early days, Joy had big dreams of bringing natural living mainstream and empowering a growing community to get in the driver's seat of their health.
The mission behind Hello Joyous is simple — to create highly effective organic and sustainable beauty products + functional wellness teas with minimal high-quality ingredients from nature, cut no corners, be 100% transparent and provide something that brings a little more joy to your day.
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